Best Used Tube Based Preamp $2k Or Under?

I've been using a deHavilland Ultraverve 3 for a few years now.  You won't be disappointed.

OP, others

You can expand your buying power/choices to full featured vintage equipment without remote control:

In order to get remote control for any vintage equipment, simply add a Chase Remote Line Controller, RLC-1. That let’s me use my beloved McIntosh MX110z tube tuner/preamp.

You get very precise 1 db steps of remote: volume, balance, mute, treble, bass, and 1 switched power outlet.

Other remote volume devices exist, but this is the only one I know of with remote balance. Once you have it, you won’t want to ever live without remote balance again.

this old ad shows it well

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649391586-chase-technologies-rlc1-remote-line-controller/images/1694269/

you MUST have a KP-1 Remote, no controls on the unit. One remote listed on hifishark now.

A unit without a remote for sale: if seller confirms it’s lights all blink when plugged in, that’s normal, thus no guarantee but likely a good unit.

@nightfall And yes, the quad of 6SN7's that the Cary SLP-98 uses concerns me a bit because of what a costs for a nice quad of those  NOS tubes. 

I have a set of very nice 4+2 [quad plus two spares] of 1960s Sylvania 6SN7GT Black Plates stored away - no longer in use. No need. They were originally NOS, now low use vintage. Guess what, my current re-issues from TJ Full Music and PSVANE Art Series MKII beat them sonically to my preference. The vintage have detail just not the smoothness and texture I hear from tubes I can buy new now. Imo, the older vintage tubes are old and getting to be long in the tooth now. They are my backups.The question on the new tubes is how long they'll last. So far so good on mine.  

I have notes on what Dan used in the Modwrights Preamps shipped out stock 5-7 years ago. I use the same OEM tubes rebranded from same provider, originally. 

Depends on the rest of your system.  I tend to go with the Hippocratic oath wrt audio: First, Do No Harm.

By harm I mean overprocessing the signal.  So if you agree with that and have a simple signal path with minimal processing, then get a point to point pre by decware, Apollo, Aric or similar.   Apollo is an undiscovered gem and is still more affordable.

If you don't agree with my methodology, than that is why I kept it short, so you wouldn't waste too much time reading it.

Jerry

My best advice is the SP-14 from Tube4Hifi, based on 6SN7 octal tubes, the very preamp that Don Sachs developed to a greater degree.  Check out their website.  I just got a Don Sachs 2 preamp and it was a bargain at $2200, a legacy unit for sure.  Lots of great suggestions above, too.